Cover -- TItle -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Meet the Author -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. When and How to Constructively Use Authentic Stories at Your School -- Stories as Social Legacies -- The Top Seven Areas of Powerful Storytelling -- How to Use Stories -- When to Use Stories -- 2. Stories that Improve and IGNITE School, Community, and Interpersonal Relationships -- Strengthening Teacher-Student Relationships -- Strengthening Staff-Staff Relationships -- Strengthening Educator-Parent and Community Relationships -- 3. Stories that IGNITE Powerful Instruction with Reduced Variance -- Instruction -- Digital Blindness -- Teaching "Responsibility"--The Power of Feedback -- The Redundant Curriculum -- Fieldtrips and Recess -- 4. Stories that IGNITE Advocacy for Thoughtful Assessment -- Homework and Pop Quizzes, One Century Later -- "Pop" Goes the Pop Quizzes -- Popsicle Sticks -- Writing Portfolios -- Test Construction and Preparation -- 5. Stories that Make Us Wonder about Our Own Policies -- Policies that are Silly -- Policies that are Missing -- Policies that Leverage -- Policies that are Abused or Taken for Granted -- Policies that Protect -- 6. Stories that Help Us to Work through Educational Politics -- Common Core Politics -- The Common Core State Standards and "New" Math -- The Opt- Out Movement and High- Stakes Tests -- Follow the Leader through the Chain of Command? -- Questioning Decision Making -- The Race for a School Board Seat -- 7. Stories that IGNITE and Motivate Teachers and School Leaders -- Stories of Victory -- Stories of Defeat -- Recognizing the Conditions for Celebrating Educators -- 8. Stories Written by Students for Helping Other Students or Adults -- Teaching Narrative Writing -- Boys Will Be Boys? -- Posting Student Work (a Story in Reverse)? -- The Never- Ending Discipline Cycle?